1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of computer systems and more specifically, but not exclusively, to establishing a virtual drive accessible to pre-boot and operating system runtime phases.
2. Background Information
Generally, the pre-boot phase is defined as the period of time between computer system startup and the OS taking control of the system. At the startup of a typical computer system, firmware is loaded from non-volatile storage, such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), and executed. The firmware is sometimes referred to as the system Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). The firmware initializes the platform hardware, performs system tests, and prepares the system for the operating system (OS) to take control.
When the OS takes control of the system, the period commonly known as OS runtime begins. During OS runtime, the firmware may act as an interface between software and hardware components of a computer system. Such interface services include assisting with software interrupts.
In current systems, information cannot be shared between the pre-boot phase and the OS runtime phase of the platform. There is no storage resource that is commonly accessible to the pre-boot and the OS runtime environments. Thus, file sharing between the phases is problematic. Also, most operating systems store information based on a proprietary file system and file format that cannot be comprehended by the firmware of the computer system.